Logan ousted in regionals by Winfield

WINFIELD — For the fourth straight year the season came to a close prematurely for the Logan High School baseball team.

The Wildcats, ranked No. 9 in the state in Class AAA, were upset 5-0 on Monday night at Winfield in the regional semifinals and saw their season come to a close at 20-10.

Winfield, which lost twice to Logan this season by 10-1 and 11-2 scores, improved to 16-16 and are scheduled to host Cabell Midland on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Class AAA Region 4 championship game for the right to play in the upcoming state tournament at Charleston’s Appalachian Power Park.

The Knights beat Hurricane for the third time this decade in the regional semifinals. Cabell Midland also owns a 4-2 win over Hurricane in the MSAC tourney.

For Logan it was the final prep contest for its four senior players — Johnny Morrison, Alex Lakatos, Trent Dalton and Benji Adkins.

Lakatos, Logan’s starting first baseman, had the Wildcats’ only hit of the game — a leadoff single in the top of the third inning. Morrison pitched in relief of starter Troy Burgess.

Josh Bumgarner fired a one-hitter on the mound and led Winfield to victory. He struck out seven and walked three over seven innings.

Bumgarner also drove in three of Winfield’s five runs. The first was an infield RBI single off Burgess in the last half of the third inning as the Generals led 1-0.

Jordan Clark then delivered a two-run single in the fourth to put Winfield ahead 3-0.

Logan tried to rally back.

In the top of the sixth inning with two outs, Kyle Harvey walked and catcher Z. Minnick drew a free pass as Winfield elected to pitch around the sophomore slugger, who came into the game with a hefly .537 batting average and .904 slugging percentage with five home runs and 37 RBI — both team highs.

Bumgarner then got out of the jam as Burgess popped out to end the threat.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Winfield made some noise again as Bumgarner drove home two runs with a bases loaded, two-run single to make it a 5-0 ballgame.

Morrison walked another batter to juice the bases again and that prompted Logan coach Roger Gertz to call on his bullpen one more time.

Gertz gave the ball to freshman Jared Shawver. The left-hander faced only one batter and put out the fire as he got a flyout for the third out of the inning.

In the seventh and leading by five, Bumgarner then got out the Wildcats as Winfield moved on to the regional finals and Logan saw its season come to an end.

Logan also threatened back in the third inning.

After the leadoff single by Lakatos, Dalton was safe as he bunted to the right side of the infield. The ball was mishandled by Bumgarner for an error as Logan had runners at first and second with nobody out.

Harvey then moved up pinch-runner Connor Akers to third and Dalton to second with a brilliantly executed sacrifice bunt.

Bumgarner, however, was able to get out of the jam as Josh Rein grounded out to the mound and the Winfield hurler was able to check off Akers at third. The third out then came as Chase Preston flew out to right field.

It was the fourth straight year Logan was upset in the post-season.

Last year, Logan fell 3-1 at South Charleston in the Class AAA sectional championship game as the Wildcats’ 12-year section title run came to an end and LHS finished the season with a 21-7 record.

Two years ago, Logan advanced to the Class AAA regional semifinals but were ousted 2-1 at Capital by the underdog Cougars. Logan closed out at 24-5.

The 2011 loss to Capital was the second straight year Logan had been eliminated by the Cougars in the regional semifinals. Back in 2010, Logan was ousted 3-1 at Capital and closed out with a 19-12 record.

Logan’s last state tournament appearance was in 2009 as LHS lost 8-1 to Martinsburg and finished with a mark of 25-9.